Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1887-03-19
JORDAN's OPINION
The Government can Prevent a Panic in
the Money Market by Becoming a

The Government can Prevent a Panic in
the Money Market by Becoming a
Buyer.
WASHINGTON, D. C., March 11.-Seeretary
Whitney to-day furnished q statement touch
ing the method employed by the navy de-
partment TO procure plans for naval vessels
and machinery. Concerning the reported
discharge OF the draughtsmsn, Terry, at the
Chatham dock yard, England, he says:
There Is no truth in any statement which
connects the navy department with anything
clandestine IN the way Of obtaining plans
abroad, or the secrets Of foreign govern
ments. il is the business Of every govern
ment TO know what implements Of war are
possessed by the Others, together with their
characteristics, aad the information can be
easily obtained, il the necessary trouble is
taken, without the necessity OF resOrting to
any questionable method" Relative TO the
purchase by the government of the designs
made by Chief Constructor White, OF the
English admiralty Secretary Whitney
says that Nh. White was not chief
cOUstruc or Of the admiralty when
he made and the department purchased the
designs, but was in the employ OF Sir William
Armstrong g. Company. The secretary
1notsz from Se.rsfari Cfar17Ier5z arlyI71sI re-
port for 1854. where he speaks in terms of
nigh commentator of the tirm. de then
proceeds as fOllOWs: After the construction
pf the .'EEmeraldl," they built the NHniWa-
Eahn, for the Japanese government which.
Ras an improved 'EsmeFaidi," and on her
trial she was reported to have made nearly
nineteen knots, the highest speed then
reached by any unarmed cruiser. j decided
10 purchase the working drawings of this
chip and her machinery for the purpose of
placing them at the disposal of our naval
architects TO see BY what method they at
tanned so much greater speed over there than
We were able to reach here. / finally closed
the contract for the plans of the two boats,
the 'Nanlwa Kahn" and what is known as
the mo. y, % for S35, goo, less than IL would
nave cost to make them with ou- own men
1 think. IL was for the purpose of having
before our people the very late-t improve
neuts IN the way of fast cruiser, of the
concern supposed to be the best
constructors in the world amOng
private ship builders of this
class of boats. 1t then occurred to me that
It would be an excellent plan to reproduce
the machinery OF these two vessels in two OF
the hve ships that We are about TO build and
this course was earnestly urged upon me by
the ship builders who examined the plans.
Many of the arrangements of the ships have
been changed conforming them to our types;
but the machinery Will be duplicated in two
OF those that are now under construction.
Ihe effect hae been, IN my judgment, to call
the attention or our own people to the Iact
that We have not kept up to the standard IN
tie way or producing powerful machinery.
The effectiveness of ths machinery In pro-
duclng hOrse power Ia nearly twice that re-
ton" and Atlantic" In these latter
cases one ton OF machinery Is
guaranteed to produce little over five horse
power and in the cases of cruisers No. two
and three, a ton Is guaranteed TO produce
nearly ten horse power. All this, it will be
seen, is stimulating to our own people and
IN the end they Will probably succeed IN do
ing as well or better than than these results
show. The secretary characterizes as ridic-
ulous the idea that the department adver-
tisemsnt soliciting the submission OF de-
signs, can be regarded as an attempt to
| bride foreign naval officers.